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showing 439 library results for 'Coastal'

Hitler's 'wonder'' u-boats : the birth of the cold war's hunter-killer submarines /Jak P. Mallman Showell "Launched during the last days of the Third Reich in an attempt to restart the Battle of the Atlantic, the majority of these revolutionary Electro-U-boats never saw action. Instead they became the forebears of the Cold War?s much dreaded hunter killer submarines. The massive Type XXI was planned to replace the conventional 'Atlantic' U-boat that had seen service so far in the war. The Type XXIII was a smaller coastal version. The new Electo-U-boats were the first submarines to operate primarily submerged, as opposed to spending large periods of time on the surface. Hitler's new designs utilized huge number of batteries to improve the time they could spend underwater, as much as several days, and only needed to surface to periscope depth for recharging via a schnorkel. The idea for this book came about when the author was asked to sort through files in the German U-boat Museum. Slotted in among the highly technical information were some fascinating personal logbook annotations from men who served in these boats. These non-technical, human anecdotes have been transformed to form the core of this book. Rather than compiling a technical treatise, this book makes maximum use of the personal accounts to tell the human story of how this new generation of submarines went to war under the incredibly harsh conditions that prevailed at the time. Accompanied by more than 100 images, this unique operational information is mirrored with similar reports from conventional schnorkel-fitted U-boats, which were at sea at about the same time, to provide a comparison with earlier types. It is, therefore, possible to appreciate the improvements in German U-boat design that were made in such an incredibly short period of time to place the electro-U-boat among the great technical achievements of the 20th Century."--Provided by the publisher 2018 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.827.3(43)
The Boston Putford story : fishing and offshore support from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.by Malcolm R. White. "The well-known Lowestoft based Boston Putford Offshore Safety Ltd. organisation was set up by a group of companies comprising Boston Deep Sea Fisheries, Putford Enterprises, Warbler Fishing Co. Ltd, the Great Yarmouth based shipbuilders and repairers Breydon Marine, and Mr. A. F. T. Jenson, founder of North Sea Divers. From the very early days of oil and gas exploration in the southern North Sea, the group set out to meet the needs of the offshore companies by providing comprehensive and professional safety services to the industry, which often works in a hostile and dangerous environment. Boston Deep Sea Fisheries was one of the largest fishing companies in the UK with a major base at Lowestoft, and others at Hull, Grimsby, Fleetwood and Penzance. The company owned and operated a large fleet of fishing craft in addition to many safety standby ships. Putford Enterprises and Warbler were at one time large fishing concerns, with many vessels at Lowestoft and Grimsby. The Boston Putford Story is being covered in a number of sections; this publication being the first part and concerns the present major partner, Putford Enterprises, and also Warbler Shipping and Breydon Marine. The story starts when two of the partners were involved in fishing, and traces the evolution from fishing into one of the three largest offshore support organisations working the seas around the British Isles. A later work will consider the associated East Anglian fleets of Britannia Marine and Boston Deep Sea Fisheries. In addition to covering the earlier fishing interests of two of the five original companies, The Boston Putford Story - Part One, charts the origins of the organisation, and the history of the vessels owned by four of the companies before and after the setting up of the Boston Putford fleet. Eventually operating all round the British coast, the group's fleet has always been in the forefront of offshore safety activities. Today there are over 25 supply and standby ships of the fleet operating around the British Isles. With the rundown and in many cases the total disappearance of the once great British fishing fleets, many former crew members of fishing vessels have found employment, after training, on Boston Putford ships. Since early in 2000, Putford Enterprises Ltd, trading with associated companies as Boston Putford Offshore Safety Ltd., has been part of Seacor Smit Inc. This leading American organisation operates a fleet of over 300 ships supporting oil and gas exploration and production, on a global scale. This book is a Limited Edition, with only 850 copies available. There are 40 colour, and 61 mono photographs, plus 4 historic images in The Boston Putford Story - Part One, together with the history of the organisation and a comprehensive fleet list."--Provided by the publisher. M.R. White, • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61(426.1)
Australia circumnavigated : the voyage of Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator, 1801-1803 /edited by Kenneth Morgan. 'This two-volume work provides the first edited publication of Matthew Flinders's fair journals from the circumnavigation of Australia in 1801-1803 in HMS Investigator, and of the 'Memoir' he wrote to accompany his journals and charts. These are among the most important primary texts in Australian maritime history and European voyaging in the Pacific. Flinders was the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia. He was also largely responsible for giving Australia its name. His voyage was supported by the Admiralty, the Navy Board, the East India Company and the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society. Banks ensured that the Investigator expedition included scientific gentlemen to document Australia's flora, fauna, geology and landscape features. The botanist Robert Brown, botanical painter Ferdinand Bauer, landscape artist William Westall and the gardener Peter Good were all members of the voyage. After landfall at Cape Leeuwin, Flinders sailed anti-clockwise round the whole continent, returning to Port Jackson when the ship became unseaworthy. After a series of misfortunes, including a shipwreck and a long detention at the Ile de France (now Mauritius), Flinders returned to England in 1810. He devoted the last four years of his life to preparing A Voyage to Terra Australis, published in two volumes, and an atlas. Flinders died on 19 July 1814 at the age of forty. The fair journals edited here comprise a daily log with full nautical information and 'remarks' on the coastal landscape, the achievements of previous navigators in Australian waters, encounters with Aborigines and Macassan trepangers, naval routines, scientific findings and Flinders's surveying and charting. The journals also include instructions for the voyage and some additional correspondence. The 'Memoir' explains Flinders' methodology in compiling his journals and charts and the purpose and content of his surveys. This edition has a substantial introduction and textual introduction complemented with photographic excerpts from Flinders's survey sheets, maps of the voyage and illustrations of the botanical and artistic work undertaken.'--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 061.22HAKLUYT
British submarines in two world wars / Norman Friedman "Although the Royal Navy did not invent the submarine, Norman Friedman's new book demonstrates how innovative the service was, to an extent which few will recognise. Its submarines performed well in combat in both world wars, and often in unheralded ways. Few will be aware that in 1914 Britain had the largest submarine fleet in the world, and that at the end of World War I it had some of the largest and most unusual of all submarines - whose origins and design are all detailed. During the First World War they virtually closed the Baltic to German iron ore traffic, and they helped block supplies to the Turkish army fighting at Gallipoli. British submarines were a major element in the North Sea battles, and they helped fight the U-boat menace. These roles led on to British submarine operations in World War II. Readers will be aware of the role of US submarines in strangling Japan, but perhaps not how British submarines in the Mediterranean fought a parallel costly but successful battle to strangle the German army in North Africa. Like their US counterparts, interwar British submariners were designed largely with the demands of a possible Pacific War, although that was not the war they fought. And the author shows how the demands of such a war, which would be fought over vast distances, collided with interwar British Government attempts to limit costs by holding down the size (and numbers) of submarines. It says much about the ingenuity of British submarine designers that they managed to meet their requirements despite enormous pressure on submarine size. As in other books in this series, the author demonstrates how a combination of evolving strategic and tactical requirements and evolving technology produced successive types of design. The Royal Navy was always painfully aware of the threat enemy submarines posed, and British submariners contributed heavily to the development of British anti-submarine tactics and technology, beginning with largely unknown efforts before the outbreak of World War I. Between the Wars British submariners exploited the new technology of sonar (Asdic), both to find and attack enemies and to avoid being attacked themselves. As a result, they pioneered submarine silencing, with important advantages to the US Navy as it observed the British. And it was a British submarine that pioneered the vital postwar use of submarines as anti-submarine weapons, sinking a U-boat while both were submerged. This feat was unique. Heavily illustrated with photos and original plans, this new volume from Norman Friedman, incorporating so much original analysis, will be eagerly awaited by naval historians and enthusiasts everywhere."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 940.451(42)
Anson : Royal Navy commander and statesman, 1697-1762 /Anthony Bruce "George Anson, Baron Anson (1697-1762), circumnavigator and First Lord of the Admiralty, entered the Royal Navy in 1712 and progressed rapidly, achieving his first command in 1722. He benefited from the patronage of his uncle Thomas Parker, later the Earl of Macclesfield, who served as Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor until his impeachment for fraud in 1725. Anson first saw action at the Battle of Cape Passaro (1718) under Admiral Sir George Byng but most of his early career was spent as captain of the station ship based at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1737 he was appointed captain of the 60-gun Centurion and sent on patrol to West Africa and the Caribbean. It was in this ship that he circumnavigated the globe (1740-1744) during the war with Spain. Ordered to attack the Pacific coast of Spanish South America, the expedition almost ended in disaster when half of Anson's squadron disappeared as it encountered 'huge deep, hollow seas' during the passage around Cape Horn. Despite further heavy losses, Anson was able to carry out a limited number of raids against coastal targets, but his capture of the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Seänora de Covadonga off the Philippines was a real victory that secured his reputation (and wealth). On his return Anson, welcomed as a national hero, soon revealed his political ambitions: he joined the opposition Whigs, was elected MP for Hedon and appointed to the Admiralty Board. Although he entered the Board while still a captain, he secured rapid promotion to Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral and then Admiral of the Fleet. Anson returned to sea in command of the Western Squadron in 1746-1747 and his notable victory against the French at the Battle of Cape Finisterre was a rare example of a British naval success after seven years of war. Anson, who was then raised to the peerage, returned to the Admiralty Board, working with the Duke of Bedford as First Lord and with Lord Sandwich on a series of naval reforms, which included ending political interference in courts-martial, introducing compulsory retirement, innovations in ship design and the formation of the Royal Marines under Admiralty control. In 1751, Anson succeeded Lord Sandwich as First Lord of the Admiralty and served until his death in 1762 (except for one brief interruption in 1756-1757 following the loss of Minorca). The reform programme continued, but his main priority on returning to office (and the Cabinet) in the Pitt-Newcastle coalition was the Seven Years War: its strategic direction, planning operations and preparing naval forces. Although he died shortly before the conflict ended, Pitt later said of Anson: 'to his wisdom, to his experience the nation owes the glorious success of the last war.' Horace Walpole inevitably took a more critical view: 'Lord Anson was reserved and proud, and so ignorant of the world, that Sir Charles Williams said he had been round it, but never in it.' Anson's earlier biographers have focused on the story of the circumnavigation, which has largely defined his reputation, as well as his victories at sea. However, other aspects of his career, particularly his roles as a naval reformer and wartime strategist, deserve to be given greater weight in reassessing his position as a leading figure in British naval history. As one commentator has pointed out, 'there is an increasing cultural valuation of administrative skills that allows an Anson to be remembered in the same arena with, but still distinctly from, a Nelson. Whereas Horatio Nelson is certainly the most well-known and enduring example of a naval hero, others followed different paths to success during their lifetimes.'"--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941.07092
British warship recognition : the Perkins identification albums /Richard Perkins Perkins, Richard (coll) 2016-18 • OVERSIZE • 7 copies available. 623.82(42)
The technical history and index : a serial history of technical problems dealt with by Admiralty departments /Technical History Section, Admiralty. Great Britain.-Admiralty 1919-1921 • FOLIO • 49 copies available. 940.459(42)